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Fort Sumter
| Established: |
1948 |
| Location: |
Eastern South Carolina |
| Acres: |
195 |
The shot heard round the world was fired here where the
American Civil War began. The greatest internal
struggle our nation has ever faced began here on April 12, 1861
when the fort, under Union command, was fired upon by the South.
When South Carolina seceded from the Union, the only post in
Charleston Harbor garrisoned in strength by Union forces was at
Fort Moultrie on the northeast mainland. The Union's Major
Anderson had command of two companies at Moultrie but believed
the fort to be indefensible. Anderson floated his troops to Fort
Sumter which was strategically located in the middle of the
Charleston Harbor. A formidable structure with five-foot thick
stone walls rising 50 feet above the waterline. The South
demanded the immediate retreat of these federal troops which was
firmly refused by President Buchanan.
For three months, the tea pot percolated until Abraham
Lincoln was handed this hot kettle when he assumed the Office
of Presidency on March 4, 1861. Lincoln's great burden was
intensified by the additional controversy raised by being the
nation's first Republican president. Notwithstanding,
President Lincoln called upon all his diplomacy and statesmanship
at his inauguration address in an attempt to mend the widening
rift that had developed in the country. His final remarks to the
South are forever etched in history, where he concluded: "In
your hands, my dissatisfied fellow-countrymen, and not in mine,
is the momentous issue of Civil War. The Government will not
assail you. You can have no conflict without being yourself the
aggressors". Lincoln's remarks, however conciliatory, did
little to stem the growing tide of discontent among an impatient
and passionate South. A month later, Confederate President
Jefferson Davis ordered the bombardment of Fort Sumter to begin
the Civil War. The guns of the Confederacy at Fort Moultrie fired
thousands of shells on Sumter and 3,700 Confederate troops
rallied for action. Against overwhelming odds the 85 men Union
garrison at Fort Sumter had little option but to surrender.
During the next few days President Lincoln issued a call for
75,000 Union soldiers. The ultimate internal struggle of American
unity had begun.
When Fort Sumter fell in Confederate hands, the port of
Charleston became one of the great strongholds of the
Confederacy. Its location in the middle of the shipping lanes
proved to be a vital defense for the city. Fort Sumter was the
South's Rock of Gibraltar. Time after time during the next few
years the fort repelled Union attacks and was never surrendered.
Only after the Union's General Sherman marched from Savannah
through the interior of Georgia northward to South Carolina
(capturing Columbia) was the fort finally evacuated in 1865.
Reduced to mounds of rubble after years of intense
bombardment, Fort Sumter has since undergone numerous
restorations. Its thick, massive, walls rebuilt. Its 60 cannon
arsenal retooled. Visitors can now develop a good appreciation of
this formidable structure and its armament. Fort Sumter stands as
a reminder of America's deadliest threat to its existence-
destruction by its own hand. Fort Sumter is accessible only by
ferry which leaves Charleston marina daily. Fort Sumter National
Monument, 1214 Middle St., Sullivan's Island, SC 29482, (843) 883-3123 www.nps.gov/fosu
Copyright ©1994-2006 Charles A. Read and ScenicUS. All Rights Reserved.
Please send any questions/ comments/ suggestions/ directly to
the author Charles A. Read
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